


Teen Wolf Screentime Project

by suzteel



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:46:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29677917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzteel/pseuds/suzteel
Summary: The first two parts were originally posted to my tumblr in 2015, with the later two posted after season 5 aired. I have uploaded here for archival purposes, largely unedited.





	1. Part 1: Overview and Lead Characters’ Screentime

**Author's Note:**

> The first two parts were originally posted to my tumblr in 2015, with the later two posted after season 5 aired. I have uploaded here for archival purposes, largely unedited.

I originally started this project to answer a minor curiosity I had about season 4 regarding whether my perception and reality coincided. Ultimately, I found that they did, albeit differently than I expected. However, I found this project overall to be immensely satisfying and very interesting regarding the evolution and use of characters on Teen Wolf, and I have decided to share my results. Hopefully others will find this information useful and/or interesting as well.

**Methodology:** I used a methodology I have seen used elsewhere on tumblr (unfortunately I do not have a link handy). Using VLC, I skipped through each episode in 10 second increments and marked down which characters were on the screen in each stopped frame. As such, the raw data used is merely as estimate of the characters’ total screentime, though hopefully it is a fairly accurate and fairly objective measure. Screentime, obviously, does not account for the amount of narrative focus or the quality of that focus for these characters. However, it still should serve well as an overall rough picture. Also, as part of this methodology, a character’s screentime is presented as a percentage of a whole (for example, in season 4, Kira was on the screen 9.35% of the time). I felt this was the most meaningful way of presenting the data.

**A Few Notes:**

**Defining Character.** Teen Wolf presents a somewhat unique challenge regarding characters as not only are there several characters that have been played by more than one actor—Derek and Peter Hale, for example—there have also been a couple of actors who have played more than one character, i.e. Dylan O’Brien and Arden Cho. For simplicity’s sake, a character’s screentime includes ALL appearances of that character, regardless of which actor played them (human and non-human alike). So for a few examples, Ian Nelsen’s portrayals of Derek are included in Derek’s total screentime, and Dylan O’Brien’s time as the Nogitsune is not included in Stiles’s screentime but under the Nogitsune’s. We are looking at a _character’s_ overall screentime here, not individual actors.

**Defining Season.** Also for the sake of simplicity and ease of comparison, season 3 is treated as two separate seasons, 3a and 3b.

**Defining Character Categories.** Characters fall within three broad categories: Lead Characters (LCs), Major Supporting Characters (SCs), and Minor Characters (MCs). Each of these categories has subcategories which I will go into further detail below.

_The 5% Threshold._ Five percent of a season’s total screentime is the threshold between the Lead/Major Supporting Characters and Minor Characters. None of the Lead Characters have had LESS than 5% screentime in any one season, and none of the Supporting Characters have had more than 5% screentime for more than one season (with one notable exception). In order to be considered a Major Supporting Character, the character must have had over 5% screentime in at least one season. If they have not, they are considered Minor Characters. There are 2 exceptions to this rule, which I will explain in the Major Supporting Characters analysis (part 2), but please note that the difference in definition between Major and Minor Characters is largely their screentime, not relevance to the plot.

_Lead Characters_. If an actor’s name has been (or will be) in the opening credits, then their character is considered a Lead Character. There are three tiers for LCs: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary (once again based on screentime, not relevance). Primary LCs have 15% or more of a season’s screentime. Secondary LCs have between 9% and 15% of a season’s screentime. And Tertiary LCs have between 5% and 9%. Some characters move within these tiers from season to season, while others remain in a single tier throughout the series.

_Major Supporting Characters_. There are two types of Major Supporting Characters: Recurring and Non-Recurring. Recurring SCs have had more the 2% screentime in every season they have been in, and most have had one season where their screentime exceeds 5%. Non-Recurring SCs are characters who have had more than 5% screentime for a single season, but either aren’t in any other seasons or have an insignificant (<2%) amount screentime in other seasons. Non-Recurring SCs are mostly villains, while the Recurring SCs are largely the parental figures.

_Minor Characters_. There are two types, Significant Minor Characters (characters with a single season of 2-5% screentime) and everybody else. Non-significant minor characters have less than 2% screentime in any given season. 

##  **Lead Characters’ Screentime**

****

Woohoo! Now that we have the definitions out of the way, the fun part: the visuals! Starting with that pie chart way up there at the top of this post–[Lead Characters Comparative Screentime Seasons 1-4](https://41.media.tumblr.com/81e5342b0def3a581adb608e13c91420/tumblr_nix0voOuRx1rubvgjo1_540.jpg). This chart shows how the Lead Characters compare to one another in terms of screentime over the course of the entire series so far. I don’t think there are any surprises to be had there. Generally speaking, in the broadest terms, Scott and Stiles are the Primary Lead Characters, Allison, Derek and Lydia are Secondary LCs, and Jackson and the newbies are Tertiary LCs. 

In the course of collecting data, I debated whether to separate the LCs into two or three tiers, but I ultimately decided to add the Tertiary category to illustrate that while the characters in this tier are definitely Lead Characters, their screentime is within the same percentage range that some Major Supporting Characters have achieved. To demonstrate what I mean, here’s a chart showing the Total Screentime for all the Lead and Major Supporting Characters for the series so far:

As you can see, all the Primary and Secondary LCs (Scott, Stiles, Allison, Derek and Lydia) clearly have had significantly more screentime than any non-lead character, however, the Tertiary LCs (Jackson and the newbies) are fairly indistinguishable from several of the Major Supporting Characters when it comes to their total screentime. 

**Season by Season Breakdown**

While each of the Lead Characters fit into clear, broad categories over the course of the entire series, a season by season look is somewhat different as different characters have been gained and lost and others have risen and fallen in their amount of focus over the past four years. Below is a chart showing the Lead Characters’ total screentime broken out into each season.

Probably the most striking thing about this breakdown is Scott McCall’s season 1 screentime–42.59% of the season’s total. Teen Wolf began as a story about a single character (focusing on him and those closest to him: his best friend and his love interest) and has expanded into an ensemble show. To illustrate this in a different way, here are two charts showing the Lead Characters’ comparative screentimes in season 1 and season 4. 

As you can see, there were very clear tiers for the Lead Characters in season 1, but by season 4 those tiers were far less distinguishable. Scott and Stiles are still the Primary LCs and Derek is technically a Tertiary LC (with 8.56% of season 4’s total screentime), but screentime is far more equitably distributed among the group in season 4. 

**Seasons 1 & 2: The Trinity, The Rival, and the Tertiary**

****

The original lineup for the Lead Characters is fairly easily defined. Scott, Stiles, and Allison were the Primary LCs, Jackson was a Secondary LC, and Lydia was a Tertiary LC. Derek started as a Secondary LC by a small margin (remember 9% is the cutoff) and then dropped to Tertiary in season 2. The drop in Scott’s and most of the others’ screentime between the two seasons was likely a result of the expanding world of Teen Wolf, with the addition of the betas and several other minor characters plus an increase in screentime for several of the Major Supporting Characters (more on that in the second part). 

**Season 3: Tier Jumping, New Characters, and Isaac Lahey**

****

Season 3, parts 1 and 2, saw a lot of tier jumping. Scott and Stiles, obviously, remained Primary LCs, but Allison’s screentime dropped dramatically, first to the Secondary level, then to the Tertiary. Derek’s screentime jumped just as dramatically to the Secondary level in 3a (almost to the Primary level at 14.51%), before dropping all the way back to Tertiary in 3b. Lydia was upgraded from Tertiary LC to Secondary LC. As for the newbies, though her name wasn’t yet in the credits, Kira was essentially introduced as a Secondary LC with 9.34% of the season 3b’s total screentime. Malia, however, was introduced as only a Significant Minor Character at 2.43%.

Which brings me to Isaac Lahey. Daniel Sharman’s name was never in the main credits, so technically Isaac is only a Recurring Major Supporting Character. However, Isaac is unique in that he had more than 5% screentime in every season he was in. He had 6% screentime in season 2, 8.3% in 3a, and 6.41% in 3b. To date, no other non-lead character–not even Peter or Kate or any of the parents–has had more than one season with more than 5% screentime, and no other non-lead character has ever had over 8% screentime in any season. Given all this, I feel that an argument can be made that Isaac could be considered a Tertiary Lead Character in seasons 2 and 3. I ultimately chose not to include him as one, but I feel he is a significant enough outlier that he needed to be mentioned. 

**Season 4: A New Equilibrium?**

While there were fluctuations in screentime between season 3b and 4 (Stiles’s screentime decreased, while Scott’s, Derek’s and Lydia’s increased), they weren’t big enough changes to move any of the characters from their previous tiers. The biggest change was the addition of Malia and Liam as Secondary LCs. As I mentioned earlier, season 4 is the most equitable season to date in terms of the spread of screentime among its Lead Characters. However, the average amount of screentime for the Lead Characters has dropped to 12.58%, whereas the first three seasons had average LC screentimes of over 14% (though 3b’s LC average screentime was only 12.12%). 

**Final Comments**

Teen Wolf has seen major changes in its Lead Characters over the course of its series, as everybody knows, though the one thing that hasn’t changed is its two lead characters, Scott and Stiles. Many of these changes occurred during season 3 as characters were lost and gained and as the internal universe of the show expanded. However, it may have found a new balance as an ensemble show with the current cast lineup. I guess we’ll see. 


	2. Part 2: Major Supporting and Significant Minor Characters

## Recurring Major Supporting Characters

As I mentioned in Part 1, there are two types of Major Supporting Characters: Recurring and Non-Recurring. The Recurring SCs are mostly the parental figures–Peter Hale, Sheriff Stilinski, Chris Argent, Melissa McCall, and Alan Deaton–plus Isaac Lahey whom I already discussed in Part 1. As Recurring SCs, not only are these characters in every season so far (except Isaac), they have all had a significant amount of screentime (>2%) in each (technically Deaton had less than 2% screentime in the first two seasons, but he averages over 2% across the series and has more screentime than any of the Non-Recurring SCs so I included him here). 

As you can see from the season by season breakdown, Peter Hale, Sheriff Stilinski and Chris Argent each also had one season where their screentime surpassed the 5% threshold (as mentioned in part 1, Isaac surpassed that threshold in all three of his seasons). Each these bumps in screentime seem to correspond with major arcs for their LC children–Argent and Allison in season 2, the Sheriff and Stiles in 3b, and Peter and Malia in season 4 (Peter was also the lead antagonist in season 4). 

## Non-Recurring Major Supporting Characters and Significant Minor Characters

I could have probably have just called these categories Major Guest Stars and Minor Guest Stars as neither the Non-Recurring Major Supporting Characters nor the Significant Minor Characters tend to stick around long. This shouldn’t be too surprising given Teen Wolf’s one season narrative arcs format. These characters come in, serve a narrative purpose, and then drop back out of the scene (or die). Here is the screentime for these characters in both categories broken down by season: 

As you can see, with a few exceptions, most of the characters in both these categories tend exist for only one season, or only have one season of significant screentime (>2%). 

I briefly discussed in Part 1 how the wider universe of Teen Wolf expanded after season 1; I think that becomes more obvious with this graph. Beside for the LCs and the Recurring SCs, season 1 only had one character, Kate Argent, with any significant screentime. For seasons 2-4, there are between five and eight characters with an significant amount of screentime per season. 

**Non-Recurring Major Supporting Characters**

There are usually only one or two Non-Recurring SCs per season who pass the 5% threshold, and they are all pretty much the major antagonists for each season: Kate Argent (s1), Gerard Argent and Matt Daehler (s2), Jennifer Blake (3a), and the Nogitsune and Noshiko Yukimura (3b). Season 4, you will note, has no Non-Recurring SCs, largely because the lead antagonist that season was already a Recurring SC (Peter Hale).

Once again, the main difference between the Non-Recurring SCs and Significant Minor Characters is screentime. Non-Recurring SCs pass the 5% threshold which puts them into the same percentage range as the Tertiary Lead Characters, so they are fairly big players for their focal season.

**Significant Minor Characters**

These are the characters with 2-5% screentime in a single season, and while they’re smaller roles than the Non-Recurring SCs, they usually still have a significant part to play in the season–some are lesser antagonists (Victoria, Deucalion, Kali, and also Kate in s4), some are allies (Erica, Boyd, Cora, Braeden, Parrish, and Mason), and some walk the fine line between the two (Ethan, Aiden, Agent McCall, and Meredith). 

## Other Minor Characters and Dead Space

**Coach Finstock and Danny Mahealani**

Coach and Danny could probably get their own category as recurring background characters. These two hover around the 1% screentime range over the course of the series, though both do have one season where they top 1.5%: Coach in season 1 with 1.52% and Danny in season 3a with 1.62%. However, both also have seasons where they had _less_ than 1% screentime: Coach in 3a (.76%) and Danny in season 1 (.88% and then season 4 which he wasn’t in at all). Mostly these two characters are notable because of their consistent presence rather than for any significant amount of screentime in any season. 

**Other Tracked Characters**

I tracked almost a dozen other named, recurring characters including Adrian Harris, Marin Morrell, Ken Yukimura, Natalie Martin, and Araya Calavera. With the exception of Ken in season 3b with 1.92% and Araya in season 4 with 1.55%, none of these characters or any others exceeded 1.25% screentime in any season. Most were well under 1%. 

**Dead Space**

“Dead Space” is what I called frames that didn’t have an tracked characters in them. These are frames with either no people in them at all (i.e. transitional black screens or scenery shots), frames with unnamed/unknown characters, or frames with named characters who are only in one episode (Heather, Sean Walcott, the Chemist, etc.). The percentage of screentime occupied by Dead Space is pretty consistent from season to season–just over 9% per season–except for season 1 which was had just under 8%. 

However, despite the name, Dead Space is not necessarily wasted space. A lot of world building, season plot/mystery introductions, and atmosphere/setting establishment occur during Dead Space. 

**Final Comments (and Season 5)**

Teen Wolf’s season by season storytelling style is reflected in the ebb and flow of its supporting characters. With the exception of parental figures, major and minor supporting characters come and go with each season, and it is likely that this pattern will continue into season 5. However, given the equivalence of the lead characters between seasons 4 and 5, it is also possible we will see a divergence in this pattern for a few of the Significant Minor Characters–namely Braeden, Parrish, and/or Mason. This would not be an unprecedented divergence as Boyd, Ethan, and Aiden each saw two seasons of significant screentime, and seems likely to me given the open-endedness of their arcs in the season 4 finale. However, it’s likely that any new characters introduced in season 5 will be non-recurrant Significant Minor Characters, excepting a villain or two.


	3. Season 5a

There won’t a lot of analysis here as this is just the first half of season 5 which–unlike parts one and two of season 3–was not meant to be viewed as a separate arc from the second half. I’ll do a much more detailed look at the conclusion of season 5.

**Lead Characters**

Overall, the average percentage of screentime for the Lead Characters is currently down to 11.98% (the lowest to date, following season 3b’s 12.12% average), with all the lead characters seeing a drop in screentime from season 4, except for Stiles who saw a 0.07 increase. 

The decrease in screentime has dropped both Kira and Malia to the Tertiary LC level, leaving Lydia and Liam (just barely) as Secondary LCs while Scott and Stiles remain Primary LCs. However, I do want to note that prior to her absence in the last two episodes Kira had 10.12% screentime (whereas Malia had 7.77% at that same point). 

**Recurring Major Supporting Characters**

Unlike the Lead Characters, the remaining Recurring Major Supporting Characters have seen increases in screentime from season 4 thus far, though none above what they have had in previous seasons and all below the 5% threshold. 

*Peter Hale and Chris Argent still fall under this category, but as they have not yet made an appearance this season, I’m did not include them for ease of viewing and comparison.

**Non-Recurring Major Supporting Characters and Significant Minor Characters**

****

The most significant thing to note is Theo Raeken’s amount of screentime as a Non-Recurring Major Supporting Character. He is the first non-Lead Character to surpass the 9% threshold (discounting Kira’s and Liam’s introductory seasons before officially become “Lead Characters”). This currently makes him the most profusive of Teen Wolf’s villains in terms of screentime in a single season, though Peter Hale and Kate Argent still have more screentime over the course of the entire series. The Dread Doctors, by comparison, have the typical amount of screentime usually seen for a secondary Major Villain. 

**Final Notes**

As I mentioned earlier, season 5 is a departure from the usual structure of Teen Wolf’s storytelling format and 5a is not meant to stand alone. I think this is most apparent in that most, if not all, of the Non-Recurring Major and Minor Supporting Characters with more than 2% screentime are carrying over from 5a to 5b, something that has never happened before, not even for the transition between 3a and 3b. However, this is a quick look at how things currently stand. 


	4. Season 5

**_An Important Note on Relativity_ :** Due to my methodology, screentime is presented as a percentage of the whole. This is an important thing to keep in mind when comparing the season 5 numbers with previous seasons–the numbers aren’t entirely comparable. Because season 5 is one long twenty episode arc with more overall screentime, it depreciates the value of screentime in relation to the whole. For example, 20 minutes of screentime in season 4 would equal approximately 4% screentime, whereas the same 20 minutes would only be 2.5% screentime in S5. Therefore a character with less percentage screentime this season did not necessarily have their screentime _decreased_ from previous seasons–it just means that they did not have their screentime scale proportionately to the increased overall total. I’ll explain this in further detail later in my analysis, but please do keep this in mind as you look at the season by season graphs–unless a character had a significantly large increase in their total screentime, most will have automatically seen drops in their relative percentage of screentime in season 5 due to the longer season format. 

## Season 5a versus Season 5b

I’m going to start by taking a quick look at the differences between 5a and 5b ([I did a quick write-up of 5a after it aired, if you want to go have a look](http://terrifiedandaroused.tumblr.com/post/127898920667/teen-wolf-screentime-project-season-5a-this-is-a)). Season 5 is meant to be viewed as a whole, breaking with previous patterns, and I will treat it as such for the majority of this post. However, I do want to summarize the differences between the two halves, as well as present the data for further clarity regarding the relativity issue that this season creates. Keep in mind that relativity is reversed when looking at each half individually–the same 20 minutes in season 4 would have a _higher_ percentage in 5a or 5b (though the effect is less extreme given the smaller difference in number of episodes [-2 vs +8]). 

**Decreasing Average Screentime for Lead Characters**

****

I think it’s obvious from the graph above that our Lead Characters weren’t on screen as much this season as compared to previous seasons. The decrease in screentime I noted from the first half of the season continued into the second half, with screentime dropping an average of 20% for our LCs between 5a and 5b (with the exception of Liam who saw his screentime increase between the two halves). Average LC screentime in 5b was only 10.04% with series lows seen for Scott, Stiles, Kira, and Malia. However, none of the LCs have dropped below the 5% threshold, and we have seen LCs with equally low percentages in previous seasons (i.e. Lydia in S1 and Derek in S3b). 

**Increasing Numbers of Significant (Major/Minor) Supporting Characters**

****

Season 5′s break with the pattern set by Season 3 is most evident with the number of continuing significant major and minor characters from 5a into 5b. Only one Significant (>2%) Minor Character from 5a did not appear in the second half–Donovan Donati, who was killed and not resurrected in 5a. However, most 5a characters did see decreased screentimes in the second half while other characters with significant amounts of screentime were introduced. Those with the lion’s share of the decreasing screentime were the Recurring Major Supporting Characters (Melissa McCall, Sheriff Stilinski, and Alan Deaton). Like our Lead Characters, these characters also all saw their lowest percentages of total screentime thus far in the series. 

There are two other things I want to note regarding Supporting Characters in 5b: The first is that Mason Hewitt surpassed the 5% threshold in 5b–upgrading him from a Minor Character to a Major Supporting Character in the latter half on the season. The second is Crystal Reed’s guest appearance in 5.18, where her character, Marie Jean Valet, had the highest percentage of screentime (27.85%) in a single episode than any other character in 5b, including our LCs (Kira was second with 24.78% screentime in 5.13, followed by Scott and Stiles who each had an episode with 20% screentime). 

## Season 5 as a Whole: Lead Characters

I think it’s fair to say from looking at the two halves of season 5 individually that the increase in overall screentime in season 5 did not mean large increases in screentime for our Lead Characters. Even taking relativity into account, none of the LCs had their percentage of screentime scale proportionally with the screentime increase. Looking at the season overall, all of the LCs had at least as much actual screentime in season 5 as they did in season 4. However, while no one had _less_ screentime this season than last, some saw only marginal increases.

**The Return of Tertiary LCs**

Malia Tate is the perfect example of the difference in relative screentime in season 5 versus the previous seasons. Malia had almost exactly the same amount of screentime in S5 as she did in S4–approximately 50 minutes in both seasons. However, while 50 minutes in S4 was more than enough to have her classify as a Secondary LC with 10.36% screentime, in S5 she only had 6.45% of the total screentime, dropping her into the Tertiary LC range. Kira also saw only a marginal increase in absolute screentime, dropping her into Tertiary percentage range for the first time since her introduction (and like Allison in 3b, this sudden drop in tiers precipitated her exit from the show). 

**Middle of the Pack**

Both Lydia and Liam fared the best in terms of having their screentime scale fairly level with the increased overall total. Their percentage of screentime overall did drop somewhat, but it’s largely in the expected range due to the difference in relativity, keeping both of them firmly fixed in the Secondary LC range of screentime. 

**Lowering the Threshold for Primary Lead Characters**

If you look back up at the two halves individually, you’ll see that while Stiles remained in the Primary Lead Character tier (>15%) in 5a, for the first time in the series he’s percentage of screentime dropped into the Secondary LC range in 5b. Overall, his total percentage of screentime for season 5 is just below the 15% threshold for Primary LCs based on the parameters I originally set in the first part of this project. However, I am going to argue that we should continue to regard Stiles as a Primary LC for season 5. My reasoning is largely based on my decisions when I first started this project. At the time, I chose 15% as the threshold between Primary and Secondary LCs for two major reasons: The first was that the average screentime for LCs in seasons 1-4 was somewhere around 14.29%, so I wanted to set the bar above that number. The second was mostly personal preference: I wanted to continue to include Allison as a Primary LC in Season 2, but I didn’t want to classify Derek as one in 3a (you could make an argument for it, but I chose not to based on his averages). Setting the threshold at 15% satisfied both these criteria. However, Season 5′s average screentime for the LCs is only 11.02%, and if you look at Stiles’s screentime in relation to the average LC screentime for seasons 1-4, it’s roughly the same ratio as in season 5. 

Furthermore, if you look at Scott McCall this season, his screentime dropped from a 22% average in seasons 2-4 to 18.24% in S5 (which puts Scott in the same range as Stiles’s seasons 1-4 average). Taking all this into account, instead of classifying Stiles Stilinski as a Secondary Lead Character in season 5, I’m just dropping the threshold for Primary Lead Characters somewhat for this season.

Overall, the significant takeaway regarding Lead Character screentime in season 5 is that it did not scale proportionally with the increased total screentime. A larger portion of the additional time was allocated to non-LCs and Dead Space than to our LCs.

## Season 5 as a Whole: Dead Space

“Dead Space” is what I call frames that didn’t have a tracked characters in them. These are frames with either no people in them at all (i.e. transitional black screens or scenery shots), frames with unnamed/unknown characters, or frames with named characters who are only in one episode*. The percentage of screentime occupied by Dead Space has been pretty consistent from season to season–approximately 9.28% per season–however, in season 5 the percentage of Dead Space increased to 10.65%. (Notably, this increase came largely from 5b. 5a’s percentage was comparable to previous seasons with 9.29% Dead Space; however, 5b had a Dead Space total of 12.03%.) 

*I made an exception in season 5 for Crystal Reed’s guest appearance. While Marie Jean Valet only appeared in one episode, I felt her screentime was nevertheless significant enough to merit tracking. 

## Season 5 as a Whole: Supporting Characters

Overall, season 5 had the most supporting characters than any previous season, with a total of 39 tracked characters, six of whom were Lead Characters and another 16 non-LCs with a significant amount of screentime. Previously, season 3b had the most, with 30 tracked characters: six LCs and 12 non-LCs with significant screentime. 

**Theo Raeken: Screentime Supervillain**

****

In general, screentime for the lead antagonists on Teen Wolf has increased with each season with Theo Raeken being the most profusive villain to date. With 8.20% screentime in season 5, he is also just shy of tying Isaac Lahey (who had 8.30% screentime in 3b) for the most profusive Major Supporting Character in a single season thus far in the series. He also had more screentime than both Malia and Kira–this being only the second time a Major SC has surpassed the screentime of one of our LCs (the first being in 3b when Sheriff Stilinski, Isaac, and the Nogitsune all had more screentime than Derek Hale). Needless to say, we saw a lot of Theo in season 5.

**Recurring Major Supporting Characters: Old and New(?)**

****

Recurring Major Supporting Characters are characters who have averaged over 2% screentime in two or more seasons. Prior to seasons 4/5, this was almost exclusively parental characters with a general trend of increasing screentime each season through the end of season 3. However, season 4 began a shift that continued into this season where this trend has reversed: their screentime appears to be now decreasing over time, though overall they still have a significant amount of screentime in each season. 

While the older Recurring Major SCs are seeing decreasing percentage screentime, it appears that a possible new set of Recurring Major SCs are emerging: Jordan Parrish and Mason Hewitt have each seen more than 2% screentime in both seasons 4 and 5, and it’s possible that this trend will continue into season 6. Furthermore, while it’s entirely speculation on my part, it is also possible that Corey and Hayden will join this category in the next season. 

I don’t want speculate too much on season 6; however, the above chart compares the possible emerging Recurring Major SCs with characters in similar narrative roles over the course of the series. As you can see, their screentime isn’t significantly higher than we’ve seen before; however, their recurrence over multiple seasons–while not unprecedented–would be a break in the general trends seen prior to season 4. 

**Non-Recurring Significant Supporting Characters**

As I mentioned at the beginning of this section, season 5 had the highest amount of supporting characters thus far in the series. It also had the highest amount of characters from previous seasons making appearances–another break from previous trends. 

_Lowering the “Significant” Threshold_ Like with our LCs, I readjusted the definition of “Significant Supporting Character” slightly to account for the disparate relative percentage of screentime compared to the total. Previously I considered anyone with 2% screentime or more to have a significant amount of screentime; in season 5, I’m adjusting this to 2% screentime _in at least one half_ of season 5. This hopefully accounts for both relativity and how S5 slightly offset the screentime for it’s supporting characters by having some with prominence in the first half and others in the second half (as I noted in earlier comparison between the two halves).

##  **Final Comments (TL;DR)**

Season 5 diverged from quite a few of the general screentime trends seen in seasons 1-4–not entirely surprising given its change in the narrative arc format. Overall, the increase in overall screentime from previous seasons was not largely allocated to our Lead Characters; instead, the screentime was mostly distributed to supporting characters and Dead Space. Season 5 also saw more recurring characters than any previous season, and a possible emerging of a new set of Recurring Major Supporting Characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never ended up watching season 6, so there is no additional analysis for that season.


End file.
